


Academic Probation

by deltadanvers



Series: Academic Probation [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:02:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25537765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltadanvers/pseuds/deltadanvers
Relationships: Tony Stark/Reader
Series: Academic Probation [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850476
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	1. Professional Development

The first professional development day of the year had snuck up on you and now you’d been roped into a meeting that would last you until 5pm. Luckily, the developmental professional for today’s meeting understood the hassles of being a teacher and was allowing everyone to use their laptops while she went through her entire spiel. She had already emailed all three of the presentations that she had been instructing from, to everyone on the roster.

As you tried to focus on drafting an email to a student about whether or not they could have an extension on a paper that you’d assigned a month ago, you couldn’t help but get distracted by the email you’d been anxiously awaiting all day. May had finally had time to respond to you.

You’d emailed her for the first time almost two years ago when her husband had been killed in a home invasion. The two of you had some correspondence since then but things had recently taken a turn for the worse. Peter had recently stopped showing up for classes regularly. He’d dropped out of clubs he’d been in since the start and he was distancing himself from everyone but Ned. You were glad that he hadn’t tried distancing himself from Ned; that would’ve been a bigger red flag than you could fathom.

Since you were his advisor and his English teacher and generally his tether to the school when he and May were in rough waters, other teachers had started bringing the issues up with you. 

You knew in your heart that Peter was a good kid and that this had been a relatively recent adaptation for him but he had spiraled recently and you couldn’t in good conscience watch it any more. 

From May’s email, you found out that majority of the issues she had been having with Peter recently were stemming from his recent involvement in a Stark mentorship program. It was weird to be so involved in high school mentorship programs yet not know about one that one of your most promising students was involved in. 

Your supervisor was sitting 3 chairs over from you, as invested in her laptop as you were in your own. You quickly shot her a message, begging for freedom from professional development so that you could invest in a student’s future. She was well aware of your propensity to host private meetings with student’s parents and sponsors to try to find ways to get kids engaged in school again and she wasn’t hesitant to let you skip the rest of the evening’s training to try to help a student.

You tried not to distract anyone as you gathered all your things and slipped out the door, determined to get answers.

From the information that May had given you, your first questions should go directly to Tony Stark. It wasn’t going to be easy getting in touch with one of the most highly sought after men in NYC, but you weren’t too discouraged.

It was almost 6pm by the time you made it to your destination. Stark Tower, or the Avenger’s tower, whatever they called it now, wasn’t difficult to get to, traffic just was a bitch in perpetuity. Getting past the lobby was going to be the tricky part. You walked up to the revolving doors, faltering only for a moment to straighten your clothes, and walked inside. 

It was decadent but not so much that you could forget it was an office complex before all the superhero shenanigans started up.

As you approached the security desk, you contemplated what your approach was going to be. If the security guard was a woman, you were likely to have better luck if you appealed to her sense of empathy and told her all about why you were seeking a meeting with Stark, for the sake of your at risk student. If it were a man, you would probably have better luck if you appealed to his desire to be the more knowledgeable one in the situation; act like you don’t know what’s going on, flip your hair, bite your lip, maybe cry a little, be vulnerable.

You looked up from your plotting only to make the best discovery you’d made all day. The security guard was one of your student’s parents. 

His face lit up at your appearance. 

“It was only a matter of time before the best teacher in the city ended up showing up for a meeting with Tony Stark himself. Did you win a grant or have your talents just been widely recognized by all across the land?” he had always been a sweet talker and you had to make a note to yourself later to see how his kid was doing now that she had graduated. 

“Neither unfortunately. I’m here unplanned to try to gain an audience with Stark to talk about his student mentorship program. He took on one of my students and now my kid has fallen behind and I need to talk to someone who can help me get him back on track. He’s a really bright kid, has the potential that your daughter was exhibiting in school and I can’t let him slip through the cracks.” his daughter was a truly intelligent kid who ended up helping you design new curriculum for your classes once she graduated. She was a star student and you’d been to many parent teacher conferences with her father only to tell the man that you had nothing she needed to focus on. She was a self starter and he knew it as well as anyone. The prideful beaming smile he took on when you mentioned how smart his daughter was let you know that he was going to give you whatever you needed in order to help Peter get back on track.

“Anything for the woman who made sure my daughter got into Stanford. I read that recommendation letter that you wrote her. I can escort you to the meeting room that Stark is hosting an event in. You’ll have to register with your name and personal information first just as a basic security precaution before I can give you any security clearance but I can get you where you need to be.” he offered a clipboard to you with some paperwork on it and you set to work. 

It took a solid 10 minutes to get through all the paperwork to be granted a basic security clearance that would just let you on the elevator, but it was an easy price to pay.

“I’m all finished with this.” you handed the clipboard back to him, trying to ignore the commotion going on in the lobby. Apparently Stark had just announced that he was going to be transferring the Avengers facilities to a countryside compound within the year and people were worried about their jobs and stability. He offered you a smile and gestured for you to follow him onto the elevator.

Floor 67 was your destination according to your chaperone who had to unlock a small metal compartment in order to gain access to the panel of buttons that would make the elevator move. 

The elevator was far faster than you were prepared for. Your hands were clammy at the prospect of barging in on Stark to make demands as a school teacher. You weren’t even for sure that he would be able to help you or if he would just have you hauled out.

Your chaperone tried to put you at ease, reminding you of the stories he had heard about the lengths you had gone for students in his daughter’s grade when she had been in your classes. 

The elevator dinged as you came to a halt, doors sliding open silently. 

“Good luck. Your student is lucky that they have you.” you thanked him immensely as you stepped off the elevator and started in the direction of the boardroom that you had been given directions to.

The doors were daunting as you approached them. The dark stained oak glared at you as you approached, uninvited.

“Just go right in, tell him what you need from him, don’t take no for an answer. It’s gonna be fine.” you coached yourself under your breath as you made the final trek to the door and knocked. If you could have a decisively authoritative knock, you would have but you just did what you could and waited for acknowledgement. 

A voice from inside beckoned you in and you immediately regretted your actions as you walked into a board meeting amongst the Avengers.

Shit.

“Excuse me how did you get up here?” Stark was first to speak up as everyone sized you up in your yellow skirt and Midtown School of Science and Technology shirt. 

“I asked politely.” you said as you adjusted your bag and reached in.

“Hey hey what are you doing there? Don’t do anything stupid, alright?” you couldn’t believe that you were being addressed by Captain America because you were reaching in your messenger bag but this day had only been progressively bizarre from the beginning. 

“I’m getting a folder out of my bag, okay? I didn’t mean to intrude on whatever you’re doing, but I have pressing needs to be addressed and Stark is the only one that will have any answers as of right now.” 

“And it couldn’t wait until you could schedule a meeting? I don’t do walk in appointments, sorry.” Stark again. 

“Listen, I don’t know you except what I hear on the news and you don’t know me but you have a connection to Peter Parker which means we have a common interest and I need you to help me.” you had such a clear speech laid out on the elevator ride but now that you were here you probably looked like a crazed raccoon demanding entrance to a garbage can.

“How the hell do you know Parker?” he stood up immediately and moved towards you as someone took up a post at the door behind you, keeping you from bolting.

“I’m his teacher. I’d appreciate it if you’d look into this.” you handed him the folder you’d stashed in your bag. Your last correspondence with May had led to a legal confirmation from her allowing you to discuss Peter’s schooling and test results with Tony Stark.

He looked at the folder like it was someone’s dismembered hand.

“I don’t have all day, Mr. Stark.” you pushed the folder against his chest. 

“Ma’am this is an official security breach, do I need to have you escorted out?” Captain America stepped in again. 

“With all due respect, Captain, one of my students is at risk and that isn’t something I take lightly, please stand down until you are told otherwise by Mr. Stark.” you knew you were being sized up by everyone in the room and you felt a little sick at the prospect of any of them thinking you were a security threat. “The only thing I have that could even be considered a weapon is a mini stapler in my purse. If you’d like to hold my purse to ensure that I don’t try to staple Mr. Stark to his tie, I will gladly comply, but I won’t have you undermining the importance of what I am here for.”

“Stand down, Spangles. She’s an English teacher in high heels. I don’t think she’s trying to hurt anyone today.” Stark said under his breath as he assessed the information in the folder.

“Mr. Stark please understand that if I had thought I could get in contact with you about this any other way, I would have, but this is a matter of my student’s future and safety. His grades are slipping in classes that he should be easily excelling in, he isn’t showing up for classes, he’s quitting extracurriculars, he’s becoming closed off to his friends. His aunt is worried, his other teachers are worried, I’m worried. It all started when he accepted your internship and if you have any integrity when it comes to your internship, you have guidelines set in place for the standards they must meet in order to participate. This has to violate those guidelines in some way.”

He didn’t say anything as he continued to read the files you had handed him.

“How did you even get up here? The security staff know better than this.” a man in a suit addressed you. You couldn’t identify him but if he was here he was of some importance you could only assume.

“I wrote one of your security guard’s daughters a letter of recommendation to Stanford almost 4 years ago. I swear to God if you do anything to that sweet man I will make your life a living hell. I work with hormonal teenagers and you don’t scare me for a minute.”

“Feisty.” the easily identifiable Falcon spoke up from behind you where he stood at the door to keep you from trying to pull anything and bolt. 

“Peter is smarter than this.” Stark offered.

“Thank you! He is an incredibly bright kid and he knows it but he needs help. He only has his aunt and Ned at this point and I’m so scared he’s going to drop off the map. He deserves more than he knows and I get that there’s a reason you offered him that internship but it’s taking too much away from him. He’s just a kid.” 

“Let’s discuss this over dinner.” 

“What?”

“You, me, dinner, tonight. We can talk about how we are going to get the kid back on track. This, uh, internship is important and I can’t just revoke it from him but I haven’t had an English teacher yell at me since I was 14 and I don’t think I want it to happen again.”

“In all fairness I didn’t yell.”

“Alright you shouted.”

“I can accept that. What is your first step towards getting Peter back on track?” you pulled him back on course. 

“We’ll make a plan of action at dinner. Wilson will show you to my office. I’ll go order food. We’ll make a thing of it.” he gave you a smirk.

“You aren’t taking this seriously.” 

“Of course I am, what do you mean?” 

“Stark.” you put on your teacher voice reserved only for last naming insubordinate students. He offered his hands up in innocence.

“Swear on my mother’s grave.” you balanced your options in your head. Either leave now and hope that Stark actually pursued change for Peter, or take the unprofessional route, as if today hadn’t already crossed an unprofessional threshold, and take the offer of dinner with Stark to make an action plan.

You sighed and turned to the man who was instructed to lead you to Stark’s office.

“Lead the way, then.” this was all for more bold than you expected from yourself.

Sam Wilson was probably the only Avenger you knew enough of to truly respect. You had heard all about his pursuits in helping veterans and testimonies on his character and knew he was someone you could likely trust. Maybe it was the nerves that made you want to find someone to trust in very unsure terrain, but you were going to let yourself go with it as you followed him through the door, making sure to walk out with some semblance of the same air of confidence that you walked up to the lobby earlier that evening with. 

“I’ve never seen a teacher stand up for a student like that.” He addressed you once the two of you made your way out of the boardroom and into the hallway that you had previously traversed alone.

“You haven’t encountered many teachers outside of when you were in school, I take it? I don’t know a teacher who wouldn’t do what I’m doing. Maybe they’d do it in more sensible shoes but they would sure as hell call anyone out who was pulling a student away from their learning to the student’s detriment.”

“I don’t know of many people that would go head to head with Stark. He’s a good guy at the end of the day but he can be a complete pompous ass when you demand things from him or even just when he perceives something as a demand. He doesn’t take kindly to authority.” he opened the same metal box that housed the elevator buttons and pressed the button indicating the top floor.

“Do you think he’ll help me?” you wanted nothing more than to have just sent him a damn email but now you were going to have a meeting over dinner with Tony Stark and it was leagues harder to be concise and intimidating in person in a pansy yellow skirt than it is to pull out a thesaurus and draft an email at home in your pajamas.

“I think he cares enough about that kid to fight for him if that’s what you’re asking.” he stepped off the elevator and led you into what was clearly a penthouse apartment. You felt entirely out of your element, expecting an office where you could find common ground but instead you were surrounded by extravagance and nothing to grasp on to.

The two of you made idle small talk for a few minutes before the elevator dinged and you turned to see Stark making his way into the room. Sam bid you good luck and left, having other things to tend to.

“I hope you like Chinese because it’ll be here in a few minutes. How do you like making plans? Are you a visual person? Should we make a chart? A list? Do you have some sort of high school teacher planning method?” you couldn’t tell if he was patronizing you or not as he made his way across the penthouse past the kitchen to the bar. 

“Mr. Stark this really shouldn't take that long, I’m not meaning to completely monopolize your night. This can just be a conversation then I will be on my way.” 

“We said this was important enough to sit down and talk about it and you have to explain some of this school stuff to me if you’re going to hand me folders full of paperwork. Now, red or white?” 

“Excuse me?”

“Are you more of a hard liquor woman? Not one for wine?”

“I’m not one for drinking during work meetings but thank you.” 

“That’s no fun, sweetheart.” 

“My name will suffice, Mr. Stark, we don’t need to adopt pet names. And it may not be fun but it is professional.” you’d had years of experience with meetings with men who felt the need to take a professional meeting to a personal level and you’d become adept at redirecting.

“Should we start with the attendance issues or the low test scores stemming from his lack of participation in class?” you didn’t give him a chance to try to derail you again.

“Let’s sit?” he motioned to a large desk against the wall of windows. 

Something flipped in him as soon as you started telling him the steps you’d taken with other students to help get them engaged when they had busy lives outside of school. He talked you through the parameters for the, uh, internship, how he encouraged Peter to only take part in internship opportunities during evenings and weekends and that he wasn’t aware of the fact that he was missing school. 

It was clear that he cared about Peter but didn’t know the extent of what the kid had been through in the past few years.

“When his uncle was killed he stopped being the same happy kid he was. He grew up too fast. I know having someone outside of school and May is good for him and I know you taking him under your wing is good for him but we aren’t going about it right. He can’t be missing school and then the days he shows up he’s so exhausted he can’t achieve his goals. He’s a brilliant kid but he needs a more constructive support system. May can’t do everything, she’s incredible but she’s overworked and underpaid and needs a break sometimes. She wouldn’t have given me permission to approach you if she wasn’t to her breaking point.”

He followed everything you said and stayed tuned in, contributing when he knew he could. 

“He has good friends, his friends are incredible kids and if he sticks with them he will be okay in that aspect but I can’t ask his friends to manage him, they need time to be kids too. I can’t ask you to revoke his internship or anything like that and I know you don’t want to do that. I don’t want him to lose that, I just need for him to have more of a support system. On slow days here, ask him if he needs homework help or give him nights off during finals.”

“He’s a good kid, Mr. Stark. He really is. He and his Aunt are incredible people, they just don’t have the time or the resources to be in the place they need to be. She works full time and is his only guardian. His parents aren’t in the picture anymore and he has seen more than he should for his age. He just needs a little more support.”

“How long have you wanted to be a teacher?” his question caught you off guard.

“I started wanting to be a teacher when I was in highschool. My English teacher took me under her wing when I needed it and I knew I wanted to be that for other kids who needed it. I needed to give back.” thinking of your own experiences growing up being taken in by nurturing teachers had your heart hurting.

“Not many have the sense of purpose that you have. It’s amazing what you do for these kids but you’re here on your day off advocating for a student. Who takes care of you?” you faltered at his question.

“That’s not really within the realm of conversations to be had at professional meetings. I wouldn’t answer that question at a parent-teacher meeting and I likely shouldn’t answer it any differently here.”

“I know what you need from me in a professional context. You’ve walked me through how to be a better mentor for Peter which is far above and beyond what you’re required. I know how I need to step up to be more available for him, which won’t be easy for me because it’s going to require me to learn the role of a mentor that I never had. I know you’re not asking me to be his father or anything like that but knowing that he doesn’t have something that I wanted so desperately is difficult and I wish he had told me before it came to this. You have fulfilled your professional duties by leaps and bounds. Talk to me as a friend who wants to help be more for other people. Talk to me as you, not as Peter’s teacher.”

“I take care of myself, thank you.” you couldn’t help but feel frustrated.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant honestly with how much you put into your students do you let yourself have time for just you?” he stood up and walked to the kitchen to inspect the Chinese food that had been delivered while the two of you were talking.

“I get it, Mr. Stark, I’m not from your world. I can’t just jeopardize professional relationships to talk about my daddy issues. My professional life pays for my ability to live in a studio apartment and eat regularly. I get that you have more than you know what to do with so you have no delineation between personal and professional and the fact that you will sleep with anything that breathes definitely doesn’t help you but I am not from that world. I have to be able to pay the bills and if I jeopardize that by being unprofessional with the people that count, I lose everything.”

“I’m not Peter’s dad and I’m not asking you to risk your livelihood, I promise. I am not going to run to the superintendent and release the information to the public that you are in fact a human being who has to rest sometimes or even possibly ask for help.” 

“Why do you care so much? Why can I not just tell you to step up to the plate and then go back to my job? Why are you trying to get more from this, Mr. Stark?”

“Because you made an effort to help a kid that I want to be better for.” he admitted and you couldn’t help but sigh. 

“Just as two people who happen to know Peter? You want to talk like that?” he nodded.

“I think I can take that hard liquor now.” you expected him to laugh at your change in attitude but he just smiled at you and moved to pour you a glass.

“Just as two people who maybe want to know each other.” he offered alongside the glass of amber liquid.

The two of you talked candidly over your chinese food. You talked about the struggles of seeing people struggling and not being able to intervene. More specifically you talked about your dreams about how you would help your students if you had the money. You talked about how you would stock the food pantry and always have a card on file at the laundromat so any kid could go wash their clothes and not worry about affording it. You talked about how badly you wished the schools had bikes that kids could rent for the year, or enough disposable income to just give students bikes when they need them. You talked for a solid hour and 3 drinks about all your dreams for how you can help your students once you get to a better place financially even if you don’t know how to get to a better place financially.

He asked about your love life and you shrugged it off, loving books and teaching enough to not have to worry about anyone else.

It was weirdly easy to talk to him. You had to question how he had gotten to a point where he had such a superficial public image when he had taken you into his home and fed you and listened to you after you demanded his help.

Maybe you’d had too much to drink or you were too tired to make rational decisions but the idea of letting Tony Stark in was more and more appealing. You had approached him today from a dehumanized standpoint, trying to get what you needed for your student and walk away unscathed but the more he asked about you, about how he can change to be better for others without damaging himself, the more he inquired as to how you would spend your free time if you had it, the more you could see yourself wanting to know him as a person. 

“Mr. Stark can I ask you a question?”

“If you stop calling me Mr. Stark, you can ask me anything.”

“Why did you hear me out today when I barged into your boardroom without invitation?”

“As soon as you told me who you were I knew that I could trust you. I’ve heard Peter talk about you and I knew that if you were coming to me, it was important. If you were anyone else, I would’ve taken Cap up on his offer to escort you out of the building and likely to the police station. But you’ve made an impact on that kid’s life and on his aunt’s life. He told me last time he started talking about school that May only came to parent teacher conferences to talk to you because she knows that you understand her position and her limited time to offer to the school. You may not see it but you are making a difference every single day with those kids and from your pleading tone alone I could tell that you were desperate to see more improvement.”

“You were looking for help and I was looking for a way to be better at helping.” he concluded.

You let your heels fall to the ground as you pulled your legs up to rest your feet under you. 

“You’re much nicer as a woman willing to take her shoes off than you were when you shoved a folder in my face.” he offered you a soft smile and you couldn’t help but return it. 

“Sometimes it takes a little bit extra to get people engaged and I would have been willing to go farther if I hadn’t completely ambushed you.” 

“I understand that this started on a professional basis but could we maybe try this again as a personal matter?” the two of you had slowly drifted closer and closer to each other throughout the evening and you could easily rest your hand on his thigh now if you were so bold. 

“I think that could probably be arranged with enough work. Busy schedules and all.” your voice was far off as you were too distracted by the oddly enchanting man in front of you and the alcohol that you had ingested to know any better at this point. 

“Busy schedule is right. I can’t imagine a woman such as yourself has all that much free time that she can devote to personal matters.” his tone had softened from how he had sounded when you first met him. He was quieter now and sounded a little distracted. 

The two of you descended into comfortable silence, a little too close to each other for this to just be a conversation anymore. 

“Since we both have such busy schedules it’s probably for the best that we use our time to the fullest extent possible, wouldn’t you think?” His hand found its way to your thigh easily. 

“That does seem to be the most logical option available.” Maybe it was the liquor but your face was hot as he offered you a smile and pulled you onto his lap with ease. His lips soon found yours as his hands found their home on your hips and pulled you as close as possible. Any sense of hesitance soon melted away.


	2. Lip Service

The sheets where he had spent the night were cold and abandoned by the time you woke up. You peered through bleary eyes to see a clock on the wall. 

7:15am.

It took only a few seconds to realize where you had woken up. It took even less time to realize why you had woken up with nothing on and a dull ache in your thighs. 

_ Shit. _

You pulled yourself up and reconciled with the loss of dignity that was sure to follow as you realized that you didn’t know where your clothing from last night had gone. 

There was very little other choice as to what you could do as you pulled Tony’s button up shirt on from the night before and walked into the living room carefully retracing your steps from the night before. 

The first thing you encountered in your quest for your walk of shame clothing, was your underwear. At least if you ran into someone you wouldn’t be completely unclothed. 

You continued your trek through the multitiered living space, not hearing someone else walk into the room.

“I thought you’d be gone by now?” you heard him speak up from behind you. You nearly jumped out of your skin as you spun around to face Tony.

“Warn a lady before you sneak up on them. Christ, Stark.”

“That shirt looks nice on you.” he smirked at you. “I can’t find my clothes from last night.” you mumbled, hand partially covering your mouth.

“You what?”

“I am a very well organized woman on a regular basis but I can’t actually seem to find my clothing.” you cleared your throat in an attempt to hide your laughter at the absurdity of the situation. “I thought they were- uh- just on the floor? But they’re not. And I am not wearing pants at the moment so I’m at a distinct disadvantage here in the way of acting like an adult who has their shit together.”

His disposition deteriorated into a bright smile. 

“How about I treat you to a nice breakfast and we find your clothes after?” 

“Did I mention the no pants thing?”

“I’ll cook.”

“I really don’t mind just getting out of your hair but I do need to find clothing in order to leave without a police escort to the station for public indecency.” 

“I’m offering to cook breakfast for you. You don’t have to rush out. We don’t have to talk about last night but you had a lot to drink and I’m offering to make you greasy food in order to fend off the inevitable hangover”

“I really didn’t have that much to drink. I promise I’m just fine.”

“Just indulge me. Stay for breakfast. You’ll want to have eaten before you go on your walk of shame. “

“I’m not ashamed, Stark. I just shouldn’t be here.”

“Then stop acting like you’re ashamed. We already slept together. I promise a pancake won’t tip the scales too far.” he turned on the stove top and started pouring mixture onto the griddle. 

“Why are you trying so hard to keep me here, Stark?”

“Because your company last night felt right and I know I won’t be able to talk you into seeing me again because you’ve already convinced yourself that this can’t happen so I’m at least going try to keep you here for whatever I can. You already called me for sleeping with anything that moves, and I just want to be more than that in your eyes for once.” his tone of voice couldn’t help but make your heart hurt. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like that.” you felt bad at the prospect of making him feel hurt.

“I’m not asking you to spend the rest of your life here. I’m saying stay for breakfast.”

You sighed audibly. 

“Just one pancake.” he wasn’t even listening anymore. He was just bargaining. 

“One pancake. And not that one.”

“What’s wrong with my pancake?”

“It’s burned. And shaped like a crime scene victim chalk outline.” you pointed out.

“It has character.”

“Stark when was the last time you made pancakes? It smells like soured milk.” 

“Is it not just the thought that counts?”

“How have you survived this long? Show me where your dry ingredients are and I will show you how to make real pancakes.” you resigned to his charm. He looked pleased with himself. 

His kitchen was more than adequately stocked and his eyes followed your every move as you walked him through how to make pancakes.

“Has anyone told you recently that you have a great ass?” his gaze had obviously wandered.

“Has anyone told you lately that you have a terrible attention span? That has nothing to do with pancakes.”

“It’s not my fault that I can’t pay attention to the pancakes when you’re galavanting around my kitchen without pants on. It’s distracting.”

“Well it’s not my fault that I’m perfectly capable of keeping on track when you’re wearing a shirt too small for you and flannel pants that leave very little to the imagination. Not that I need to imagine much as someone already gave me all the information I could possibly need. I am already not in my wheelhouse. You can either talk about my ass or I can keep making these pancakes.” you shot him a look as you finished mixing the batter.

“That’s not even fair.”

“It’s completely fair. The rocks you were going to try to pass off as pancakes would have killed you.” 

“I dare you to take a bite of your pancake then.” You pushed the discarded pancake towards him. The smile on his face as you pressed the pancake piece against his sealed lips told you everything you needed to know about his understanding of his own pancakes.

He watched you make your way back and forth through the kitchen, he was mesmerized by the grace with which you did such simple things in a way he hadn’t seen anyone else do in years.

It was easy to fall into a rhythm. 

“Do you have any strawberries, T?” You weren’t sure what about the simple request had Tony starry eyed again, but it pulled at something, a basic desire for comfort and closeness, in his heart that had him coming right back to you. 

He pulled you against him with ease once again and had your head firmly stuck in the clouds as he kissed you. As quickly as it had started, you had your hands under his shirt and he had one hand on your waist and one hand on your upper thigh. He acted like it was nothing as he hoisted you onto the counter. You easily slipped his shirt off of him and he started working at the buttons on the borrowed shirt that you had on. 

“Oh god I’m sorry!” you heard a shriek from across the room as you jerked away in surprise and tried to cover yourself with the shirt, slipping off the counter to stand behind Tony.

“Shit, kid! How did you even get up here?”

“I took the elevator like you told me to when you told me to meet you here Saturday morning!” you slid off the counter as quickly as humanly possible, an adult woman fully taking advantage of someone else’s form to hide from a student.

You couldn’t even begin to form an understanding of the repercussions this could have if Peter realized who you were.

“Hi, Ms. [L/N]” he offered with distress hanging in his voice.

“Oh god.” you squeaked. “Um. Hi Peter. If you would be so kind as to turn away for a moment so I can leave the room, that would be great.” you cleared your throat as you saw Tony fighting a smile at your distress. You couldn’t blame him. It was so distressing it was truly to the point of comedy. “Please. I’m-uh, not wearing pants.”

“I’m just gonna go if you didn’t need me, Mr Stark.” Peter started moving towards the elevator. 

As Peter turned, you made a break back to the bedroom so you could find your clothing. You could hear Tony talking Peter into staying for the originally planned meeting as you shuffled around the room, finding your pants, finally. Now you were only tasked with the job of finding your shirt as your bra turned up on the floor.

“I’m so sorry.” the voice from the doorway startled you and you pulled your arms up to cover your still exposed midriff.

“If you could just help me find my shirt, I really need to leave. Or you don’t have to help. I’ll be out of your way really soon, I promise.” you stumbled over your words as he approached you. 

“I really didn’t mean for him to see you. Or come today at all. I forgot that he and I had things to discuss this morning at all.” his hands found your hips and pulled you closer to him as he spoke. “Stay for a little longer and I can have someone drive you home. It really isn’t a problem.” 

“Mr. Stark, I have already violated the god of all ethics violations for a teacher. I just need to leave and make sure this never happens again.” your hands came to find his wrists to try to pry yourself free of his grasp. It loosened a little with the formal address returning to your voice. 

“We had gotten so far from you calling me Mr. Stark, but we are here again.” he tried to joke with you, trying to bring back the light conversation from this morning, the slow, easy dialogue that let him keep his hands on you and his mouth never far behind. He was for some reason already enamored by you and all you would show him was how desperately you felt you needed to get away. “I’m sorry, really.” he addressed you quietly as he pulled his hands from your waist. As a second pair of eyes always does, he spotted your shirt quickly and handed it to you as you avoided as much contact as possible. 

Before he could come up with anything else to say, before he could come up with any way to console you into staying a little longer or even just agreeing to see him again, you were pulling your heels back on, getting your purse off the couch, and making your way back to the elevator you had used to get yourself into this situation in the first place.

“I guess I’ll see you in class?” Peter asked timidly. 

All you could muster was a soft ‘oh god’ under your breath as you stepped onto the elevator and pushed the ‘close’ button for dear life.

Nightmares realized. 

It was a full day and a half before you were back in your classroom, showing your students the proper way to diagram a sentence on a monday morning before the caffeine kicked in. 

Of course, Peter didn’t seem to make it to class this morning. You couldn’t even bring yourself to blame him for his truancy. It was too much to think about this early in the day. 

You didn’t have any more time to rip yourself to pieces over the mistakes you had allowed to happen


End file.
